1 00:00:03,760 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:11,200 Speaker 1: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 4 00:00:16,200 --> 00:00:29,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. Since the beginning of time, 5 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 1: civilizations all over the world have found new and innovative 6 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: ways of telling time. The sun dial, which calculated the 7 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:40,440 Speaker 1: time of day for ancient Egyptians using the sun's position 8 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:43,280 Speaker 1: in the sky, is one of the oldest techniques we 9 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:47,200 Speaker 1: know of. The Saxons cut candles into sections, with each 10 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:52,000 Speaker 1: segment meant to burn for just one hour. As time advanced, 11 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: so too did the methods by which people measure it. 12 00:00:55,280 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: It was in the late hundreds when the first mechanical 13 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:01,319 Speaker 1: clock chimed for the world. Although the device has been 14 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: lost to history, we can get a good idea about 15 00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:06,680 Speaker 1: how it might have functioned thanks to the Salisbury Cathedral 16 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,959 Speaker 1: in Italy, which boasts the oldest working clock in the world. 17 00:01:11,040 --> 00:01:15,080 Speaker 1: As with most new inventions, early clocks tended to have flaws. 18 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:19,319 Speaker 1: They were notoriously inaccurate and complicated due to their use 19 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:22,400 Speaker 1: of weights, which made them too large for the average house. 20 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: Churches were the primary locations for most mechanical clocks until 21 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:29,560 Speaker 1: the coiled spring was invented in the mid fifteenth century, 22 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 1: allowing clockmakers to shrink them down to a more manageable 23 00:01:33,400 --> 00:01:40,080 Speaker 1: and accurate size. Later on, new materials and techniques were added. Pendulums, 24 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:44,280 Speaker 1: hair springs, quartz, and magnets all found their way into 25 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:48,040 Speaker 1: these machines, bringing their costs down and allowing them to 26 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:51,320 Speaker 1: live in our homes and even on our wrists. Over 27 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: the centuries, they've transformed from enormous structures to mass produced commodities. 28 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:00,840 Speaker 1: And that's the funny thing about the common clock. We 29 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: don't really think about it anymore. We expected to be 30 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:07,120 Speaker 1: there on the wall or on our wrist were now 31 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 1: on our cell phones. We've never had a reason to 32 00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: ask the biggest question of all, why can't we tell time? 33 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:18,639 Speaker 1: Our bodies are capable of incredible things like creating life 34 00:02:18,919 --> 00:02:22,120 Speaker 1: and healing our own wounds, but counting the seconds to 35 00:02:22,160 --> 00:02:25,720 Speaker 1: the same degree as a ten dollar watch is impossible. 36 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:30,880 Speaker 1: Some extraordinary people are capable of hearing a tone and 37 00:02:30,919 --> 00:02:34,480 Speaker 1: telling you exactly what musical note it is. Others have 38 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:38,200 Speaker 1: photographic memories so vast they're able to recall ten year 39 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,399 Speaker 1: old conversations word for word, as though they were reciting 40 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:45,679 Speaker 1: lines from a play. But an accurate internal clock has 41 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:52,520 Speaker 1: alluded our evolution for millennia, at least until eighteen, when J. D. 42 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:57,440 Speaker 1: Chevallet demonstrated his unique talent for telling time. He developed 43 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 1: it as a child, when he began counting the intervals 44 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:04,639 Speaker 1: between bell chimes and pendulum vibrations of the clocks around him. 45 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:07,000 Speaker 1: He once gathered a crowd on a steamboat on Lake 46 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:10,280 Speaker 1: Geneva and told them he could calculate any number of 47 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:13,480 Speaker 1: minutes or seconds that they called out without fail. When 48 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:16,880 Speaker 1: the time had passed, he would announce it with startling accuracy, 49 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:21,440 Speaker 1: while a spectator with a watch verified his claim. He 50 00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:26,000 Speaker 1: was never wrong. What's more amazing is that he did 51 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:29,160 Speaker 1: this while carrying on conversations with members of the crowd. 52 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: His internal clock was wound so tightly nothing could throw 53 00:03:33,639 --> 00:03:37,080 Speaker 1: it off. He once said of his gift, I have acquired, 54 00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:42,120 Speaker 1: by imitation, labor and patience, a movement which neither thoughts, 55 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:47,920 Speaker 1: nor labor, nor anything can stop. Not much else's known 56 00:03:47,960 --> 00:03:51,480 Speaker 1: about Chevallet. He'd had his fifteen minutes of fame, which 57 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:54,600 Speaker 1: I'm sure he counted down to the second and wasn't 58 00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:58,240 Speaker 1: heard from again. Telling time better than a wristwatch is 59 00:03:58,280 --> 00:04:00,880 Speaker 1: a fun party trick, and that's something to earn a 60 00:04:00,880 --> 00:04:04,360 Speaker 1: living on, though I do wonder why no one else 61 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:08,920 Speaker 1: has come forward with a similar ability. Perhaps our reliance 62 00:04:08,960 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: on technology has made such a talent unnecessary. Maybe our 63 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,040 Speaker 1: memories will go next as we rely on the internet 64 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: to do all of our remembering for us. Or maybe J. D. 65 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:23,880 Speaker 1: Chevallet was just born at the right time in the 66 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,279 Speaker 1: right place, like he'd been destined to become the perfect 67 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:46,839 Speaker 1: human clock. After all, he was Swiss. Most people already 68 00:04:46,880 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 1: know of James Joyce, the Irish author of some of 69 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: the most beloved books of all time. Ulysses, Dubliners and 70 00:04:54,040 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: A Portrait of the Artist as a young Man have 71 00:04:56,640 --> 00:04:59,400 Speaker 1: found their way to numerous best of lists, as well 72 00:04:59,440 --> 00:05:02,919 Speaker 1: as high schoo curriculums all over the world. It's that 73 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:06,080 Speaker 1: last title, a Portrait of the Artist as a young Man, 74 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:12,240 Speaker 1: that's particularly special because of one character. Grandly Grantly, is 75 00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:14,839 Speaker 1: described in the book as the main character's best friend 76 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:19,039 Speaker 1: at university and someone content with the status quo. He 77 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 1: has not called to greatness the way his friend is, 78 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:24,800 Speaker 1: which is odd because the man the character was based on, 79 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:28,560 Speaker 1: did some pretty great things in his own life. His 80 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:32,440 Speaker 1: name was John F. Byrne, or JF as he was known, 81 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:36,279 Speaker 1: and he attended college with James Joyce. They became good 82 00:05:36,279 --> 00:05:39,159 Speaker 1: friends over the years, so it seemed fitting for Joyce 83 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:41,640 Speaker 1: to write him into one of his books. But why 84 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: he made Burn such a pushover, we'll never know. You see. J. F. 85 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:51,239 Speaker 1: Byrne was, among other things, an inventor. In nineteen eighteen, 86 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:54,240 Speaker 1: he devised a secret code system using nothing more than 87 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:56,600 Speaker 1: a cigar box and a few bits and bobs from 88 00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:59,800 Speaker 1: around the house. He called his invention the Chaos Cipher, 89 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,480 Speaker 1: which sounds a bit like a weapon a supervillain might 90 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:06,479 Speaker 1: use against Superman, but it's really more benign than that, well, 91 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:09,920 Speaker 1: unless you're sneaking messages across enemy lines and you don't 92 00:06:09,920 --> 00:06:13,000 Speaker 1: want the opposition to know what you've written. The Chao 93 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 1: Cipher consisted of two discs side by side, each disc 94 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: rotating on a spindle. A mixed up version of the 95 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:22,440 Speaker 1: alphabet was written along the outer edge of each disc, 96 00:06:22,880 --> 00:06:25,000 Speaker 1: and as you turn it, the other would move in 97 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:27,799 Speaker 1: the opposite direction, similar to the gears on a clock. 98 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 1: As each letter was enciphered, the alphabet shifted again, making 99 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: the encoded message practically impossible to decipher without the algorithm. 100 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:40,839 Speaker 1: Now you would think such a method for inciphering messages 101 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: would earn top dollar from anyone wanting the utmost security 102 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:48,520 Speaker 1: for their classified communic case, burn took his cigar box 103 00:06:48,600 --> 00:06:51,760 Speaker 1: to the top cryptoanalysts of the U. S. Army Signal Corps, 104 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:55,080 Speaker 1: the U. S. State Department, the Navy, and even a 105 00:06:55,200 --> 00:06:58,000 Speaker 1: T and T, but no one wanted anything to do 106 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:02,320 Speaker 1: with the Chao cipher. But Burne was resourceful, as he'd 107 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,359 Speaker 1: clearly demonstrated, and he decided to put his little box 108 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,440 Speaker 1: to the test. He compiled a book of popular texts 109 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:11,680 Speaker 1: that he had enciphered and then challenged readers to crack 110 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:16,240 Speaker 1: the codes. In his nineteen fifty three autobiography, he enciphered 111 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:19,320 Speaker 1: a message using the Chao cipher and offered five thousand 112 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 1: dollars to anyone able to break it. Not a single 113 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,320 Speaker 1: person was able to decode the booklet or the message. 114 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:30,320 Speaker 1: He even mailed copies to the American Cryptogram Association and 115 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:34,280 Speaker 1: the New York Cipher Society, groups whose members spent their 116 00:07:34,320 --> 00:07:38,280 Speaker 1: lives encoding and decoding secret messages using all sorts of 117 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:43,040 Speaker 1: tricky methods, but Burne's Chao Cipher proved too difficult for 118 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:47,000 Speaker 1: anyone brave enough to face it, and then in April 119 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty, Burne passed away, taking his algorithm with 120 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:55,760 Speaker 1: him to the grave. No one had come close to 121 00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: solving the Chao Cipher's mysteries. In the decades following Burne's death, 122 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:04,800 Speaker 1: The passage within his autobiography was still enciphered, as was 123 00:08:04,880 --> 00:08:08,280 Speaker 1: the small booklet he published of known texts. It seems 124 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:12,680 Speaker 1: his cigar box and the secrets inside it were lost forever, 125 00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:16,920 Speaker 1: and no one knew how any of it worked well, 126 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:21,600 Speaker 1: almost no one. J F. Byrne, perhaps knowing what he'd 127 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,320 Speaker 1: created was too much for anyone to figure out on 128 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:28,000 Speaker 1: their own, passed his knowledge down to his son John 129 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:32,680 Speaker 1: before his death in two thousand ten, almost one hundred 130 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:37,280 Speaker 1: years since the device's inception, John donated his father's work 131 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:41,720 Speaker 1: to the National Cryptographic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland. In 132 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:47,120 Speaker 1: doing so, he proved two things. First, unlike the James 133 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 1: Joyce character based on him, j F. Byrne had never 134 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:55,640 Speaker 1: been one to uphold the status quo. And second, truth 135 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: is definitely stranger than fiction. I hope you've enjoyed today's 136 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,640 Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free 137 00:09:07,679 --> 00:09:10,360 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by 138 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:15,439 Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by 139 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:19,080 Speaker 1: me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I 140 00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:23,000 Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 141 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:26,040 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 142 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,600 Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com. 143 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:32,040 Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious.